Abstinence From Meat is NOT Fasting

Considering it is Holy Week starting yesterday, I thought about the funny idea that some Roman Catholics are saying they are fasting. But are they really fasting? Here is what fasting is defined as to abstain from food. On the other hand, abstinence means avoiding certain types of food. To fast means to skip one meal. On the other hand, not eating meat at all does not mean you skipped a meal.

A good picture would be a vegetarian and seafood buffet. There is really no meat in the vegetarian buffet but you cannot say you are fasting. Let us think if during the first round you took some vegetables and grilled squid and you went a few more rounds because there were also serving of octopus, tofu and various types of fish dishes. Even if you did not have a single portion of meat but it was not fasting. It was merely abstinence from meat but it was not a fast.

What is also so hypocritical is that many Roman Catholics even tend to be judgmental what people eat during Holy Week. But the Bible says in Colossians 2:16-18 says, "So let no one make rules about what you eat or drink or about holy days or the New Moon Festival or the Sabbath. All such things are only a shadow of things in the future; the reality is Christ. Do not allow yourselves to be condemned by anyone who claims to be superior because of special visions and who insists on false humility and the worship of angels. For no reason at all, such people are all puffed up by their human way of thinking." (Good News Version)

Worse, the whole idea of mandatory abstinence from meat also matches 2 Timothy 4:1-3 as a doctrine of demons saying, "The Spirit says clearly that some people will abandon the faith in later times: they will obey lying spirits and follow the teachings of demons. Such teachings are spread by deceitful liars, whose consciences are dead as if burnt with a hot iron. Such people teach that it is wrong to marry and to eat certain foods. But God created those foods to be eaten, after a prayer of thanks by those who are believers and have come to know the truth."